How are Critchlow Adkins Children’s Centers having to adapt because of COVID?
Since all school systems are in the process of answering that question for their own schools, we thought it was relevant and deserving of a separate section. Here is Cristy Morrell’s answer.
Licensing has limited the number of children in each class. We can only have a total of 15 people in a classroom, and that includes the teacher. Since we’re working with little kids, we usually take 13 kids in a program and have two teachers. And we do that because it’s challenging to keep kids engaged and socially distanced and having to keep their hands washed. With two teachers in the classroom, it increases the safety measures that we have in place.
We’ve put into place a drop off procedure where parents have to take the child’s temperature and show it to us. They have to answer health care questions, the same screening questions that the health department has put out for other businesses. When the kids come in, they have to wash their hands.
We’ve broken up our classrooms into sections so that everybody has their space. A lot of toys and games that cannot be easily disinfected have been put away. We purchased a lot of individual sets of art supplies for the kids that are in pencil boxes. So, instead of having an art station where the kids might go and paint, they have their own sets that they can work at their table. We can just wipe down the box and not have to worry about the individual pieces.
What happens is the child picks a set of toys or activities that they do. Once they’re done with it, the teachers will disinfect them. After naptime or break, they can pick another set to work with.
We try to do a lot outside, which is challenging with this high heat. But if they’re outside, there’s a lot of relay games, just exploring games, like making mud pies. We also have very educational, STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs. I mean, you can do a lot with Slinkies or building tracks for marbles. We’re trying to keep it engaging and academic, and trying to make it easy for the teachers and fun for the students.
